Marshall McFadden strolled into Oliver C. Dawson with the rest of the first-team defense Tuesday afternoon, but unlike the rest of his South Carolina State Bulldog teammates, he wasn't padded up.

Instead, the preseason All-MEAC first-team selection wore a white Under Armour shirt and shorts. On his right arm, a tightly wrapped bandage secured the elbow that he hyperextended in the second quarter of his team's 24-13 win over Bethune-Cookman. He hasn't quit hurting since, not so much because of the injury but because he won't be able to step onto the field today when his team takes on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

"It hurts me a lot," McFadden said. "I have a lot of friends that play for USC, guys like Mike Davis and Cory Boyd, and all those guys have been bragging for a while. All of us went to Clemson camp together, and this was our chance to meet up and play against each other. I'm real disappointed that I won't be able to do that with Markee (Hamlin) and LaQuinn (Ellerbe)."

McFadden is closest to Davis; he met him as a senior year in high school.

"We were at that Clemson camp together, and they treated him like a God," he said. "I was Marshall. But we became friends and kept in contact."

So what does Davis think about McFadden's injury?

"He called me up and told me I was scared," McFadden said. "He was just kidding, but it's disappointing knowing that he is going to be playing and I'm not."

The most disappointing part of it all, McFadden said, is missing out on the opportunity to play in front of the crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium.

"The atmosphere ... I've never played in an atmosphere where you have 80,000 people watching you," he said. "This was my chance."

Thursday -- the day before the Bulldogs were scheduled to leave Orangeburg for Columbia -- McFadden was out on the field again, without pads and looking on as his teammates ran through their final walk-through in Orangeburg.

"Coach (Buddy Pough) came up to me, and he was like, 'Marshall, I know you are hurt and upset.' And I told coach that I couldn't sleep at night. He just told me that I have to live through these guys like he does sometimes. That's the only thing that I can do is give these guys energy."

And so, McFadden has resigned himself to enjoying the moment. When the Bulldogs and Gamecocks kickoff tonight, he said he will be ready -- even if he isn't playing.

"I am going to be excited to be in front of the lights," he said. "I'm going to have a good time. I'm going to be out there just like I'm playing in the game anyway. I want those guys to feel comfortable, and if I am walking around with my head down they are going to be walking around with their heads down.

"We are trying to go down and shock the world," he said. "This is David vs. Goliath."

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T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be contacted via e-mail at www.thetandd.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.thetandd.com.

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